Bureau of Pokémon Affairs
by SillyQuill
Summary: An agent who feels he's accomplishing nothing, burdened by rules of the bureau, Duke finds himself in an interesting situation partnered with new inductee Yami Moto. Duke seeks comfort with an old friend while Yami attempts to get a handle on his new life, even as his family is moving on without him. But old hurts are arising and closing in, threatening the little peace they had.
1. New Partner

**Welcome to the sequel of ****Protect the Pokémon!**** It's not **_**necessary**_** to read that fic, but the events that take place in it will be referenced back to in this story. **

**A BIG thank you goes to user Esmeraude11 for wanting this sequel in the first place and for giving me enough ideas to actually get this fic off the ground. You have some potent muse-like qualities, my dear. **

Duke Devlin was in trouble with his supervisor, Maguire, _again_. He'd been promoted after his successful infiltration of Team Rocket and for taking the initiative and bringing an end to their raid of the Kaiba Estate Breeding Grounds sooner than had previously been anticipated, possibly saving a great many of the baby Pokémon from being harmed or kidnapped, and keeping the facility itself under-wraps. But somehow his supervisor had gotten a lot of the credit and was promoted as well. To make it worse, the guys upstairs had decided that, since the two of them obviously worked so well together, they should be kept in the same relation to each other.

Apparently they'd forgotten the months before the Team Rocket incident when Duke was on report for one offense or another nearly every week due to his supervisor's inability to reconcile himself with the "radical" ways that Duke would execute his missions and comport himself in general.

Duke ran his hands over his face. But he'd really done it this time. Maguire had come out humiliated and oafish-seeming from a meeting presenting the supposed winning strategy used in apprehending Gozaburo Kaiba and securing KEBG. This was the first time that Duke had been invited as a guest speaker of sorts to supplement the presentation. The minute Maguire had finished his trumped up, greatly falsified exhibition that had emphasized and put great importance on the Bureau of Pokémon Affairs' involvement, Duke had stood up and exposed it all for the load of crap that it was. He couldn't help himself.

The degree to which the BPA was wrapped up in red tape had led to civilian involvement, _vigilante justice_. Yes, the BPA had aided Seto Kaiba in the preservation of his assets, but not until the final stages when the CEO and the other non-agents had essentially had the situation under control, not until after the Kaiba Corporations headquarters had already had a giant hole blown in it after an Electrode attack, resulting in multiple casualties, human and Pokémon alike, not until twelve-year-old Mokuba Kaiba had been attacked in his own home. The list went on. The BPA had been portrayed as an inept organization through one of its star agent's own words.

"I'm dead," Duke groaned. He'd been right, but he was dead. Frankly, in his opinion, the wild Pokémon on and around the Kaiba Estate probably deserved more credit for helping than the BPA.

Duke turned his head to look at the Murkrow seated beside him. Scarecrow, as he'd named it, had been one of those wild Pokémon who'd come to the rescue when it looked like Team Rocket might come out on top. It had gotten attacked by a nasty Wartortle, damaging one of its wings. One of the things that the BPA did deserve some credit for was that it had provided medical attention for all the Pokémon that had been harmed in the battle, no matter what side they had fought on or who their trainer was or wasn't. Scarecrow had healed up nicely and was perfectly capable of flight even though some of the feathers on its left wing were permanently out of place. It would be back in the forests surrounding the Kaiba Estate right now if it weren't for the fact that it and Duke had bonded while it was recovering.

Holding out his arm, Duke said, "Step up." Scarecrow settled on his forearm and looked up into his face. "Do you have any idea of what we're going to do when we're tossed out on our asses?" Scarecrow chortled a little and ruffled its feathers. It had gotten pretty used to how things existed in Duke's world, especially in regards to Maguire, and actually found it amusing to a degree. Most of the time it was serious and watchful, a lot like Duke, but they both could find moments of lightheartedness.

Duke scratched Scarecrow's shoulder, moving down its left wing to play at arranging its frazzled feathers. He and his Murkrow were distracting themselves with the game, Duke tugging gently at the bent feathers, Scarecrow nipping at the fingers with its beak, when a shadow stood over them on the wooden bench they were sitting on.

Duke stiffened, believing that Maguire had finally come out of his nearby office to fetch Duke for a sound tongue-lashing and demotion. Instead, he got an eyeful of spiked hair and purplish eyes.

"I'd remember that Murkrow anywhere," Yami greeted, a grin on his face. "Hello, Duke."

"Yami Moto," was all Duke said in response. He felt his lips turning up at the corners, but it was difficult to marshal up any enthusiasm as he stood and shook the other man's hand. Luckily, Scarecrow made up for it, hopping onto Duke's extended arm and using the bridge of their hands to make his way over to perch on Yami's shoulder. "What are you doing here?"

Duke hadn't seen Yami since the wrap-up of the investigation and prosecution against the members of Team Rocket. The first time they'd met, Yami's shoulder had been busted, the arm completely free from the socket. He'd been tackled by the same Wartortle that had then damaged Scarecrow's wing when the wild Pokémon had come to the rescue. Yami had told Duke as they'd watched the Murkrow and other Pokémon being treated that he owed a lot to that Murkrow, it probably having saved him from an even worse battering by distracting the foaming Wartortle. When Duke had decided to foster and then adopt the healed Murkrow, he'd sent a brief note informing Yami, and that had really been the last piece of communication they'd had. There really had been no reason to keep up the contact.

Yami's grin turned almost sour, or at least mildly self-deprecating. Ironic perhaps? Scarecrow made a questioning caw and snapped at one of the points of Yami's hair. "I just finished most of the training program to become a fully-fledged agent here. I'm reporting for an orientation lecture and then am going to go see about getting a partner assignment," Yami answered, tilting his head away from the Murkrow's persisting beak as it went after one of the yellow lines, seeming to like the flash of them.

Duke held out his arm for Scarecrow to move to. The Murkrow obligingly moved over, though it seemed reluctant to give up the bright strands of Yami's hair. "That's right," Duke murmured. "I guess it slipped my mind that you were one of us now."

Yami had joined the BPA a few months ago, interviewing for the job just days before the raid on Seto Kaiba's breeding grounds and clinching for himself the position when he and his brother had taken out several Team Rocket members on their own with a mere six Pokémon between the two of them. Only five Pokémon, really, considering that at the time they'd had an inexperienced Pidgey that neither trainer was willing to put in harm's way at such a young age. Duke had never heard of anyone passing through the BPA training so quickly, so no doubt word of Yami's overall success during the raid had reached the ears of the higher-ups and gotten him in some sort of advanced program, something along the lines of what Duke had gone through to achieve his rank so early on.

"It kind of slipped mine for a while as well," Yami admitted. "I didn't really expect what it would be like to leave my family and Pokémon behind. I don't feel like I'm actually me anymore because of it."

It was the usual reaction from the newbie agents. They missed their mommies and daddies. The pet-Pokémon they'd kept whom they'd ignored for the most part now became their hearts' fondest memories and ultimate symbols of home and love. Everything from their past lives now had a golden glow of nostalgia surrounding it.

Normally, Duke looked down on the ones who had this reaction, but Yami had proven his mettle that night at KEBG, and as far as Duke knew, he'd never used his reputation as one of the best trainers around to get any favors. He was a good guy. Duke hoped he made it work here.

Since the place itself didn't work.

A while ago, Duke had gone on report, as assigned by Maguire, of course, for trampling the morale of the new recruits and trainees. "Trampling" seemed a little harsh to Duke, but he had finally noticed the trend in people dropping out of the various Bureau programs after having gotten into a chat with him. He guessed they just couldn't handle being part of a useless, corrupt agency after being confronted with the truth of it. It had taken a while, but Duke had finally learned to catch himself before he went off on the Bureau in front of the newbies. Yami would be spared the diatribe. Until he was firmly rooted, that is. Then Duke would have no qualms about exposing the quagmire of bureaucracy and gibberish Moto had become a part of.

Duke's impending doom was still on his mind, and if he wasn't going to unload on Yami how much the BPA was a disappointment in nearly every respect, he didn't have much to say to him.

"Well, I'm kind of waiting for a meeting with my supervisor," Duke said. "It was good to see you."

Yami didn't seem that put off by Duke's dismissal. A little resigned, perhaps, but not insulted. It looked like the life of a Bureau's agents was already sneaking up on him.

"Right. I won't tie you up anymore then. See you later, Duke." Yami waved goodbye as he headed off for one of the countless orientation lectures that he would be subjected to for the next several weeks.

"See you, Yami." Duke rather doubted it, though. There were different types of agents in the bureau. The kind that Duke was and the kind that Yami would become, lone agents versus those paired with partners, rarely associated on a day-to-day basis.

Once he was alone, Duke sat down again and rested his head back against the wall. Yami had actually been a pleasant diversion from the coming explosive annoyance, but he'd already slipped back into the dismal state of mind working at the Bureau had put him in, had started slipping into even during their stunted conversation.

"Devlin!" Maguire finally seemed ready to ream him a new one.

Duke shared a look with his Murkrow before slowly pulling himself up from his seat, Scarecrow swaying gently on his arm.

As he entered the office he was greeted by a horrible screech from Maguire's wretched Chatot. Duke could hardly believe that Maguire had the gall to berate others for the things they said when his Chatot, the disgusting bird, had a Bureau-wide reputation for its bad mouth that it could only have learned from Maguire himself.

"_Son of a bitch!_" it squawked when Duke threw himself into his customary berating seat.

Maguire had been on the phone with his own boss. From the look on his face and the ready cursing of his Pokémon who knew its trainer's moods quite well, Duke was glad and ready to bet that he wasn't the only one who would have been chewed out by the end of the day.

Duke's superior still seemed locked in the call he had just ended, but as Maguire began to lose his shell-shocked expression, noticing Duke and replacing it with puffy red outrage, his Chatot said one of the only things Duke had ever agreed with it saying.

"_Uh oh_."

* * *

_One month later:_

Duke was no longer able to take it. He'd handed in his forms three weeks ago. He wasn't resigning from the BPA itself, just from his department, _Maguire's_ department. He was transferring out after his and Maguire's final confrontation. A disciplinary committee had early gotten involved after one of the windows in Maguire's office had been busted out under circumstances neither of the involved party had wanted to give details about, for their Pokémon's sakes if not for each other's. Needless to say, one of them had to go after that.

It had taken time to find a place where Duke could actually go, and that was following a week crammed with training and retraining programs to make sure he was up to BPA standards. But leaving the position of special agent was a difficult one for reasons beyond that, on a personal level for Duke. Special agent meant special treatment. Not a great deal, but only special agents were allowed to have their Pokémon out at headquarters so as to minimize injuries to people and Pokémon, only special agents had access to certain areas, cases, and resources of the bureau, and, unofficially, only special agents had the "benefit-of-the-doubt" ploy when finagling with human resources and other departments. Who could say no to someone who had 'special' in their title?

And if that weren't enough, where Duke had ended up was going to be a trial. It had been decided that Duke was an asset best kept active in the field, which was a boon, he had to admit (what else could they do with him, after all?). But he wouldn't be alone anymore, or be allowed to get away with the same repertoire of stunts that were normally his forte. There would always be someone watching him now, and more meetings with his new supervisor were requisite, thanks to his lacking 'special'. Duke just hoped he got along with this one considering all the contortions and essential demotions that he was taking part in so as to get away from Maguire.

But Duke didn't have much hope. He was beyond jaded at this point in his career. So why did he stay? Why didn't he just leave the Bureau of Pokémon Affairs when he still found so much wrong with it and so far got along with no one in it?

Because it was the only option if he wanted to help Pokémon. Vigilantes, no matter their field, never stay free or true for long. Either they're caught, by one side or another, or they just plain go bad themselves after a time. It still tempted Duke to leave the BPA and fight those who would abuse and enslave Pokémon the way he felt he needed to, but common sense and routine always ended up keeping him where he was. He both looked forward to and dreaded the day that his head wouldn't be enough to keep his heart from sending the rest of him gallivanting off into the sunset just to end up surrounded by the night.

Duke was going to continue to try to work it out with the BPA for now, but this last altercation with Maguire felt like the first big nail in the coffin of his career.

_Good thoughts,_ Duke reminded himself as he came to his new supervisor's door and knocked. She'd originally been an Officer Jenny who'd wanted something bigger. The name 'Jenny' still stuck, though, as did a lot of talk from some of the more elitist agents who didn't think a commonplace cop deserved or was capable of holding a superior position. Duke hadn't shared those views, necessarily, but he had no clue what a police-trained supervisor would allow to let slide and what she would be strict about, 'cause Duke had no doubt that his rule-bending was going to be continuing, probably might even get worse. Even at this moment, Duke was ignoring the no Pokémon rule and had his Ditto masking as his red and black diamond-patterned headband.

Agent Jenny stepped out of her office and closed her door before Duke even thought of taking a step inside. He had to compliment her on the suave execution of what was obviously an attempt to block his view of her office.

"Ma'am." He nodded to her. "Duke Devlin, reporting in."

She nodded in response, her tied back aqua hair bobbing. "Thank you for being prompt, Agent Devlin. I need to say a few things to you before I introduce you to your partner."

_Here we go._ Duke braced himself. He had an idea of what she was about to say.

"Don't ruin this for your partner." Her eyes were hard and unforgiving.

That… hadn't been what Duke was expecting. "Pardon?"

Agent Jenny shook her head slowly while still holding his eyes. "I know your version of the bureau's standard operating procedure. It isn't SOP at all. That may have flown when you were a special agent and on your own, but you won't be risking just your own Pokémon and your own job anymore—"

"I don't risk my Pokémon!" Duke rejected. He put a hand to his quivering headband.

Jenny held up her hand, stopping him from going on. "You'll have your opinions on the subject, and I'll have mine." Not a good sign for Duke and hers relationship as superior and inferior. "But you can't deny that you do go _above and beyond _when it comes to your duties." She did not mean that in a good way. "You're under my supervision now because you've moved to a partner-based position, and I, to be frank, couldn't believe it when I was told you were being moved to this department. I didn't believe that you were cut out to be paired with someone."

She still didn't, Duke realized. This wasn't going well. It was going worse than even Duke had anticipated, especially because he couldn't fight against what she was saying. He didn't feel like he was cut-out to work with a partner, either.

"Because of your record and because your partner is a new agent with no prior history with the bureau to defend himself with, I can't emphasize enough that if you continue with your maverick tendencies, you will ruin his career before he's even had it."

Duke did not sign up for a new responsibility! He just wanted to get away from Maguire. How could the bureau judge one partner by the other partner's action anyway?

He wanted to say all of this to Agent Jenny, to defend himself against the BPA's policies, have her look at the positive, near-heroic points of his record.

All he could do was nod again and say, "I understand the situation."

"For his sake, I hope you do," she responded. Taking a step back, Agent Jenny turned the knob and opened the door. "Meet your new partner."

Duke recognized the ridiculous hair even before Yami turned in the chair he'd been waiting in for the last half hour and said, "We meet again."

**Thanks for reading! Just a reminder, in both this fic and its predecessor, Yami has his own body and is Yugi's older brother. **

**Also, my original fic for the most part only dealt with first generation Pokémon, with a few exceptions, but no such stops exist for this fic. Everyone is up for grabs!**


	2. I'll Show You Mine

**Comparatively quick updates are rather nice, especially considering that I have enough excuses at the moment to push off updating anything for the next couple of year or so. That's depressing. Both that I find a month to be a quick update and that I have no time. **

It was Saturday and Duke was meeting Yami in front of the gym the BPA provided for its agents. On rare occasions, a special Bureau Badge was made available to the public who would come to this gym and battle a few chosen agents. Any trainer who actually won with their Pokémon went on the BPA watch-list, either as potential agents or threats depending on their attitude. Duke thought it was a sneaky way of spying on the same people whom they were supposed to be protecting, but he still couldn't help but feel it was one of the bureau's cleverer plans that actually achieved results.

Beside Duke on the low wall that led up to the gym where he was sitting, his Charmander, Flamethrower, was curled up and resting against his thigh. Despite being his starter and quite a dear friend, when Duke had left for the months-long undercover mission within Team Rocket, he'd left Flamethrower behind for fear of its safety. It had also provided a convenient way into Team Rocket. Saying that he'd been thrown out of the BPA for mistreating his Charmander had been music to Gozaburo and Bandit Keith's ears even as it had churned Duke's stomach. When he'd finally returned and reunited with Flamethrower, the Pokémon had been hostile and uncooperative, and its tail's flame had been all but out.

Duke had been doing his best to bond again with his miffed Charmander, but it had been hard, especially with the aftermath following the KEBG raid, the drama with Maguire and switching departments, the training of his new Murkrow, etc. He had to capitalize on the few minutes he had alone between meetings and assignments. And Flamethrower didn't get along particularly well with other Pokémon, even occasionally Duke's own, so Duke felt it acutely whenever Charmander was alone at home or in its pokėball that it really didn't have anyone but Duke himself to rely on. He'd been in a nasty guilt trip for months now which was only recently starting to let up.

Flamethrower yawned and uncurled, stretching out against Duke's leg. Duke gave his starter a pat on its orange, round head, getting a contented squeak in response. Perhaps leaving his special agent status and moving down into the somewhat humpty dumpty areas of the BPA would be a good change for him and his Pokémon… for a while. Then they'd all most likely get bored again and want the freedom they used to have—

"I hope you haven't been waiting long," Yami greeted, once again sneaking up on Duke while he was deep in thought. Duke hoped that he wasn't giving his new partner the impression that he was easily caught off guard. He still couldn't help but jump, disturbing his Charmander, nearly causing it to fall off the wall.

"Uh, hey. No, not really. Flamethrower and I were just enjoying the sun," Duke said, getting settled again.

Yami nodded and walked around to stand to Duke's side. He had a small grin on his face. Flamethrower peeked around Duke and glared suspiciously at the man with the weird hair. Yami smiled at it, though it didn't return the favor.

"Yugi and I almost chose a Charmander to start with, since we'd grown up with our grandfather's Charzard watching over us. But a Cyndaquil caught our eye and we were bonded with him before any of us knew it." Flamethrower crawled onto Duke's lap, and Yami leaned down and extended his hand for it to sniff.

"I've been meaning to ask about that," Duke said, leaning back a bit to give his Charmander and its waving, agitated tail a bit more room. "It's one of the reasons I asked you to meet with me before Monday when we start working officially."

Neither of them said anything for a moment as Flamethrower gave Yami's fingers one last inspection with its twitching nostrils and then bared its little fangs in preparation to bite. Yami quickly withdrew from snapping range, but he seemed good-natured about it, his smile curving his lips. Duke was grateful for that.

"How did you and your brother end up sharing your Pokémon? He's quite a bit younger than you, isn't he?" Duke asked, glad that his curiosity in this matter was to be relieved.

Yami gave a half shrug and turned a bit to watch a flock of Taillow doing acrobatics over the gym before moving on. "He's only two years younger, and we've always done everything together. I can't remember him ever not being there…" He paused for so long that Duke looked over to notice that, though the Swellows had gone, Yami was still staring into the distance. He roused himself as Duke watched, his emerald green eyes narrowing as Yami pasted another smile on his face.

"Anyway, when I was looking for a starter, I took Yugi along, and he disliked what I disliked, liked what I liked. When we finally got to our Cyndaquil, not only did we both like him, but he liked the both of us. It was just the natural thing to do then and from there on."

"Even that little Pidgey of yours?" Duke asked.

"Pidgey might just be a bit more of Yugi's Pokémon than he is of mine, if for no reason than its age and how much time it's been spending without me there," Yami admitted. "Otherwise, all of our Pokémon are equally ours."

"I've seen some of the tournaments and contests you two have been in. It's pretty impressive how well you work, both singly and as a team," Duke commented, noticing the way Yami had begun shifting his weight awkwardly as the conversation continued.

"Hopefully I can convert the same skill set into being a BPA agent," Yami said.

Duke took a deep breath. "I need to know what Pokémon you have at your disposal at any given time. If you and Yugi are going to be trading off often, then I need to be kept informed as your partner."

Yami was shaking his head before Duke finished. "Don't worry about that. Yugi's keeping Ra, Cleopatra, and Horus. Um, they would be our Quilava, Ninetales, and Pidgey. I'll always have our Golduck, Kadabra, and Sandshrew."

"Interesting Egyptian motif," Duke commented, thinking of his own tendency to choose a trait and then name the Pokémon after that. 'Flamethrower' for Charmander and 'Doppelganger' for Ditto were about as complicated as it got with him. Flamethrower snorted, sending a puff of smoke in Yami's direction. At least it didn't seem to think much of the historical, mythological, _fancy_ names.

"It's for the contests. Choosing a theme made it easier for style and costume reasons," Yami answered, not seeming self-conscious at all about it. "Using the pantheon was helpful because of the individual personalities of each of the gods."

"Can I meet Geb and… uh, them?" Duke asked, wrapping his arms around his Charmander to keep it from pouncing should Yami agree.

Yami nodded and reached into his blue jacket. "Sure."

Duke stood up and set his Charmander on the ground. "Let's actually head over near the payroll office. Fewer people are likely to see us there, and I don't want you busted for having your Pokémon out where someone could see them."

Yami followed Duke without question as they wound through the grassy areas and various buildings. Flamethrower kept a suspicious eye on Yami, walking with its chin tilted over its shoulder the whole way until they reached a shadowed, narrow walkway running between the payroll offices and a building that Duke hoped he never had to enter: the office building of the _higher-ups_. Bloody bureaucrats. At least Duke was pretty sure that none of them would be in on the weekends.

Duke came to a halt and turned to Yami, who was playing with three pokėballs while having a very pensive look on his face, much more real than any of the smiles beforehand.

"Since you got to ask me some questions, Duke, I would like to ask you one."

Duke and Flamethrower both narrowed their eyes, but Duke had to nod.

"Why did Agent Jenny warn me to look for a different partner?"

"…I didn't know she had warned you to look for someone else," Duke diverted. Now he was the one nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot. How dare that Jenny even say something in the first place? Partners needed to trust each other, Duke was pretty sure. Warning Yami off of Duke like that was probably the exact opposite of trust-building.

"Maybe 'warn' wasn't the best word," Yami qualified, still juggling his pokėballs in his palm. "She tried to get me to consider other people, letting me know that with my reputation I could essentially have anyone I wanted as a partner. And there was some insinuation on her part that you might not actually be with the bureau that much longer due to your—"

"Attitude," Duke supplied. Flamethrower snarled, reflecting its trainer's inner indignation.

"Something like that. I think she was trying to imply that you weren't happy with the BPA and would soon be leaving on your own terms to do something else. Possibly criminal." Yami smirked a little as he said it, finding the whole thing amusing and a bit ludicrous. "I guess you spent a little too much time with Team Rocket for your manager's comfort."

"Maguire always hated my guts. It figures he would say something like that about me," Duke said.

"It sounded like more people than just Agent Maguire have said it," Yami informed. "But, getting back to my point, are those the only reasons that Agent Jenny told me to watch out if I decided to go with you? I need to be kept informed as your partner," he echoed Duke's earlier words.

Duke gritted his teeth, but couldn't see a way to get out of answering. "That about sums it up. I have issues with the policies the BPA enforces, which has led to a little law _bending_ on my part to get things done the right way. But I'm not like those people in Team Rocket. I'm not a sadist who gets off on abusing their and others' Pokémon."

Yami was shaking his head. "I never thought that."

"They were probably right to warn you," Duke went on. "To be frank, I don't want a partner, Yami. I just want to do my job, and working with Maguire was making that impossible. The only way to get out from under that incompetent tyrant was to transfer here. It's unfortunate for you that you got stuck with me, but we're partners now, so we're just going to have to learn to live with each other, I guess."

They stared at each other for several moments. Yami had stopped fiddling with his pokėballs, and Flamethrower crouched down and watched Yami carefully with a hostile light in his eyes.

"I didn't get stuck with you, Agent Devlin. I chose you," Yami finally said. Suddenly he switched one of his pokėballs to his other hand, enlarged it, and called out his Sandshrew.

"This is Geb," he introduced as the Sandshrew blinked sleepily in the dim light. "He was the last Pokémon we caught before the Pidgey."

Flamethrower charged at Geb. Duke tried to snatch his Charmander before it reached Yami's Sandshrew, but it sneaked past his hands and didn't listen as he called him back.

The Sandshrew watched as Flamethrower approached it. It gave a little yawn and then curled up into a ball as the Charmander reached it. Confused, Flamethrower came to a stop. It stuck out its paw and poked the Sandshrew with a little claw. And, again before Duke could stop it, his Charmander gave the Sandshrew a head-butt that sent it bouncing between the walls of the payroll offices and the higher-ups'.

"Flamethrower!" Duke shouted. "Damn it. I'm sorry, Yami."

He needn't have bothered apologizing. Yami was laughing and the curled-up Sandshrew was likewise shaking with amusement. Flamethrower growled and went after Geb again, only succeeding in sending it rolling and bouncing again. It ended up resting near Duke's feet.

"Go ahead and give him a nudge if you want," Yami encouraged.

"Maybe later," Duke declined, even as Flamethrower came over to furiously inspect Geb again.

Yami brought out his Golduck, Caesar, the second Pokémon that Yugi and Yami had ever caught as a Psyduck. And a Kadabra, Thoth, named after his grandfather's Alakazam, Ptah, another reason for the Egyptian motif. Thoth and Flamethrower nearly had a confrontation, however, and soon Yami's Pokémon were put away, even as Flamethrower returned his attention to Geb and was about to see how far it could send him flying.

"I've shown you mine; you show me yours," Yami said, going over to lean against the payroll building.

"Well, Flamethrower's here. You've met Scarecrow. There are four others." Duke tapped his headband, and Yami watched as it melted down his face and congealed into a pink blob with a face on Duke's shoulder. "This is Doppelganger. He started stalking me one day, imitating Flamethrower and my other Pokémon, and the guy just ended up part of my group."

"You have a whole swarm of tricks up your sleeves, don't you," Yami commented, his words wry.

Duke smirked as he pulled three pokėballs from his pockets. "I also have a Scyther, Blade, a Staryu, Pointy, and a Seaking, Spike."

"Am I sensing a theme?" Yami kidded.

Duke continued smiling as he put his pokėballs back in his pockets and his Ditto reformed as his headband. "Look, I've got a meeting with a friend that I have to get to, so I'll see you Monday when we get out assignment, and show you those guys later, yeah?"

Yami looked surprised for a brief moment that Duke caught, but he quickly covered it up. "Uh, yeah. I'm going back to check out the gym, then. I'll see you Monday."

_Great_, Duke thought. _This is the second time that I've completely dismissed him_. Yet he did have an appointment to make with an old friend. He'd try to make it up to Yami some other time. They'd be spending a lot of time together from here on out.

"You know," Duke began slowly as the thought occurred to him, "as long as we're each other's partners, we're essentially sharing our Pokémon now too, I suppose," Duke mumbled. His Charmander growled and made a snap with its jaw in Yami's direction. "Uh, except for Flamethrower. He's…" Duke searched for the right words that wouldn't sound too negative as Flamethrower glowered at Yami.

Yami waved off his explanation with a grin on his face. "I've had experience with Joey's Charmeleon; I get it." Duke snorted and nodded, having met Wheeler's Charmeleon himself. A good reason on its own for Duke to try to keep his Charmander as such for as long as possible until they were once again on the best terms possible.

"Anyway," Duke started again, "you obviously miss your brother and your Pokémon that are with him, and I just want you to know that, though I might not be the best partner-material, I am going to try."

Yami blinked in surprise. "I'm going to try, too."

There was an awkward moment before Duke started walking away, his Charmander following him. Yami did the same in the opposite direction. As Duke headed out of the little alley, he thought he saw a curtain draw and then fall back in one of the offices of the higher-ups. He paused a moment to see if there was any more movement from the area above him. When no more was forthcoming, he recalled Flamethrower to his pokėball before moving on into the public grounds and heading for the gates leading off the bureau's land.

Duke suddenly realized as he was passing through the gates that, though Yami had told him all the reasons he and Agent Jenny thought that he would make a bad partner, Yami had not told Duke why he had decided to take Duke on.

**Thanks for reading! Getting into the hang of writing Yami without his past as a pharaoh and Duke just as Duke is much more difficult than it was when Kaiba was the focus of my story. Yeep. Any suggestions on how I might make them work a little better?**


	3. Duke's Idol

**Updates! Flashbacks! The glamor of fanfiction! Let it begin… (It's long to make up for any delays.)**

_Five years ago:_

_Twelve-year-old Duke had run away from home after he'd had a fight with his father. Neither was an irregular occurrence of late. Now he was bicycling as fast as he could to the other side of town. His new starter, a Charmander his father had never wanted him to get and that had been the source of their most recent argument, clung to the handlebars in front of Duke and made squeaks alternating between fright and delight depending on just how out-of-control Duke's pedaling and traffic-dodging was. By the time they reached the other side of Domino, the rich people's side, Flamethrower was grumbling, chattering, and chortling all at once, having left claw marks in the metal of the handlebars while still bumping his head affectionately under his trainer's chin. _

_Flamethrower had attacked Duke's dad, biting his leg as he'd yelled at Duke for not living up to his potential. How he expected Duke to feel that he had any potential when he was constantly being putdown and attacked for the things he did do was a mystery to his son. Duke's father had kicked his Charmander away, Duke had gone to its rescue, and then the fight started. Duke had run out with Flamethrower clutched to his chest, gotten on his bicycle, and left. Tears mixed with sweat were dripping on Charmander now that he was stopped in the high-class area of the city. _

_A cop car turned onto the street a few intersections up. He didn't think his dad would have reported him missing, but he didn't want to chance it and be forced back home just yet. Abandoning his bike on the sidewalk and shifting his Charmander so that it was clinging to his back, Duke clambered over a fence and into the backyard of some hoity-toity person's palace. He continued roaming around, catching the attention of several shocked and pampered house-Pokémon as he and his Charmander trespassed on their territory. They were finally chased over one last fence by a snorting, growling Pignite that didn't take kindly to their appearance on its scene. _

_Duke caught his shoe on a fence post and tumbled to land face-first in the next house over's yard. Flamethrower on his back let out an 'oof' for him. The shoe that ruined their dismount remained dangling from the fence by a shoelace. Duke stayed on the ground, hiccupping a little and thinking of his father's threats to send Flamethrower away. Flamethrower crawled off of him and nudged his side._

"_Char, char," it murmured. It curled up against him and the two commiserated in their misery for a while before they were caught out._

"_Oh, dear. We seem to have some crocodile tears watering our lawn." _

_Duke gasped and looked up to find a man with long gray hair covering the left side of his face staring down at the sniffling teen sprawled at his feet. An Espeon was twined around his legs. _

"_Esssssssssssssp,"it hissed at Duke and Flamethrower. Flamethrower snarled back, and Duke grabbed its hind legs as it charged past it keep it from attacking the Pokémon or its owner. _

"_Nice catch," the man with gray hair said. Duke watched in disbelief as the man sat down cross-legged on the ground to stare at his little trespasser from closer quarters. Dirt was already clinging to his black suit. "What are you doing trespassing here, boy?" The Pignite that had chased Duke and Flamethrower out of its yard it the other side of the fence in one last protest against the two, causing the shoe still dangling to bang against the post, catching the man in black's attention. "Ah, I see," he commented, almost to himself. _

"_Don't call the cops," Duke begged suddenly. He pulled his Charmander back and managed to get into a kneeling position with Flamethrower on his lap. "I'm sorry. I won't come back again. I was just…"_

_The man made a considering noise and pursed his lips out. "I suppose my pretty and I can let you go this time." He stroked along the Espeon's spine as he said this. "But I'm going to have a name to go with your face and the reason for why you've tumbled into my yard." He raised his visible eyebrow at his trespasser. "Does this sound like a good deal to you…?"_

_Wiping his face somewhat clean with his sleeve, the thirteen-year-old nodded and said, "My name's Duke. Duke Devlin."_

"_I am Pegasus."_

* * *

Every Saturday afternoon, Duke had a standing meeting with Maximillion Pegasus, the CEO of Industrial Illusions. The agent was let into the house by Pegasus's butler, a Mr. Mime. It smiled and waved in greeting with its giant gloved hands at Duke before gesturing for him to come inside. This Mr. Mime had been the one to serve him a cup of tea and cookies the first time Duke had met Pegasus and been invited into the house for a chat.

Five years ago, when he'd made his way on his bike all the way to the rich people's side of Domino, he'd ended up in Pegasus's backyard, pouring his heart out to the man on the grass and then in the man's dining room, not even knowing who the guy was at the time or for several months following. Despite his promise to never come back, Duke had shown up in Pegasus's backyard the next weekend, and the next, and the one following that, risking the Pignite's temper and the loss of his bike every time as he cut across the other lawns to get to his destination. Finally, Pegasus had just told his welcome trespasser to use the front door after his neighbors had reported a suspicious punk wandering on their properties.

Other than Flamethrower, Duke considered Pegasus to be his first friend, and more of a father-figure than his own dad had ever been. Pegasus had listened to every complaint and hope Duke had about his family and home life that first day, only breaking in to get some food into the boy, and from there on he'd only offered support and a sympathetic shoulder for Duke to lean on. It made Duke think that Pegasus might have had a father like his himself.

The Mr. Mime led Duke to the same room it always did. Duke assumed it was some sort of parlor, but it was far within the house and had many white sheets draped about and paint splatters on the floor. Duke liked the room, but had never dared to actually look under the sheets; he was already enough of an interloper in this house, though he'd never been harshly called out for it.

A large Serperior was draped in and over and around a plush armchair, the only furniture in the room other than what might be hidden, that was facing out the room's windows. It was always there that Duke could tell. The Mr. Mime paused when it caught sight of the other Pokémon. Pegasus's Serperior was a particularly territorial male. Duke had always found this surprising considering what an affable person Pegasus himself was. But it had been his starter as a Snivy years ago, so maybe he'd had a different character then, was all that Duke could figure. Though the somewhat flamboyant ornamentation of the Serperior did kind of match Pegasus's style.

"I'm good for now, thank you," Duke said to Mr. Mime. Mr. Mime smiled and nodded, then mimicked eating and drinking. "Naw, I don't need anything. Thanks again, though." Mr. Mime gave another nod before sending a glance towards the Serperior, who'd ignored them completely so far, and leaving the room to the agent and the Pokémon.

Pegasus would show up soon, so Duke would only have to avoid the Serperior's attention for a short while, not that the Pokémon had ever given any indication of caring about Duke one way or another. Now that Duke considered it, he could see a _little_ bit of resemblance between Serperior and his trainer. When Duke had met Pegasus the very first time, he had been morose in the abstract. Duke remembered the black suit he'd been wearing, and dirtying, their first meeting. It had been a few years until Duke realized that Pegasus had likely been depressed that whole time, because suddenly he hadn't been.

Two year ago, Pegasus had told Duke to stay away for a couple of weekends, and when Duke had come back, Pegasus had been a different, ecstatic, and admittedly slightly crazed-seeming person. This new Pegasus was the one Duke had come to see and enjoy even more.

The door to the sheeted room opened and in walked Pegasus.

"Devvy! Good to see you this week, boy!" Pegasus gushed. Duke had warned him that with a new partner, he might now be able to make it as often as every week. Pegasus had brushed him off, but Duke had thought the man had looked a little downtrodden when he'd told him.

Duke felt a grin spreading over his face despite the trouble of the past several weeks. "Hi. How are things, Pegasus?"

"Marvelous, of course. Industrial Illusions _might_ just have something coming up that could for once put us ahead of Kaiba-boy, considering the "straights" he's been in since that horrible explosion, but I can't really tell you any details, as you're a Numel-skull." Pegasus added a wink to the normally derogatory name for BPA agents. Originally coined by common criminals, now businessmen had taken it up for their own personal abuse. Duke didn't mind it all that much, considering the relative lack of wit it carried. The agents had their own choice phrases for the people they went after; 'Spoink' for petty thieves was one of Duke's personal favorites. _That_ was a clever insult. Now they just needed a good one for sleazebag corporates.

He'd never use it on Pegasus, of course. He respected the man, despite having the sneaking suspicion that Industrial Illusions might be the company behind the creation of Trubbish and Garbodor, as well as Rotom and others. That was how Industrial Illusions became known to the world and managed to stay in business despite Kaiba Corporation's great success in all things to do with Pokémon. KC might cater to the needs of Pokémon and trainers, but Industrial Illusions _created_ Pokémon. Porygon had been its very first. And then Pegasus had taken a step further: reanimating the fossils of ancient Pokémon. Duke absolutely idolized Pegasus, though that had begun long before he'd known he was speaking to every Saturday.

There was a sound behind Duke, a combination between a hiss and a sigh. He turned to see Serperior had finally looked away from the window and was now uncoiling itself from its undersized armchair and staring at Pegasus, a message contained in its gaze that Duke couldn't decipher.

"Ah, yes. I'll meet you down in the lab, Devvy-boy," Pegasus said. "I have something to discuss with Serperior." There was a glimpse of the less flamboyant Pegasus from a couple years ago, but he was quickly swept under the rug and his flashy self reappeared. "Hurry, hurry, I have something I want to show you when I get there. A great treat and sneak-peek for a Numel-skull." Pegasus winked again and laughed as he encouraged Duke out the door.

The Mr. Mime was on the other side and bowed and gestured with its giant gloves for Duke to continue through the house and around to the lab in the back of the property. He knew his way. He knew his way all over this mini-mansion. He did wonder why Pegasus didn't have some huge palace off on the coast of some exotic country or in the heights of famous mountains, instead of an extremely upper-class version of suburbia with flowers busting out all over the place in the spring and kids playing in the very well-kept street.

Duke exited out the back door of the house and headed across the lawn. The Espeon was curled up, lounging on the step leading to the door of the lab. The pink-purple Pokémon yawned as Duke approached, its bright canines and brilliant red jewel flashing in the sunlight.

"Hello, pretty," Duke said, having known the Espeon for as long as he'd known Pegasus and always greeting her the same way, the way Pegasus greeted her. For all Duke knew, the Espeon's name _was_ 'Pretty.'

She _murred_ her welcome back, and Duke heard a series of clicks and clanks from the knob-lacking door behind her before it drifted open, an invitation for Duke to enter. She controlled any and all entry into the lab, using her psychic abilities to control the locks and catches of the door.

"Thank you, Pretty," he said, stepping forward. She seemed to smile with her large purple eyes in response, her forked tail giving him a wave as he passed and went inside.

* * *

_Two years ago__:_

_Duke said hello and passed by Pretty. This would be the first time he'd be visiting Pegasus for a few weeks, since the "renovations" had been completed and Pegasus started insisting the garage Duke had never really even known about now be called a 'lab.' It had been a large garage, but Duke didn't see how a few weeks could change it into a 'lab.' _

_Pegasus had told Duke to just say 'hi' to his Espeon to be let in. He'd done that, and now he was starting to understand what Pegasus had created while Duke had been barred. He walked between two separate sections of bi-parting rolling file cabinets that created a short, wide hall between them before opening up into the rest of the lab. He whistled in great appreciation._

"_I'm guessing it wasn't always like this," he said, looking over the expanse of the white marble-floored area. It was very bright, with large caged lights hanging from the ceiling at precise intervals. Two… pits? Two humongous pits were opposite him in the warehouse-sized lab. The rolling shelves continued all along the wall on this side and to Duke's left, and partially along the one on his right. Several black-topped tables were arrayed in the center of the room. One had a one thousand gallon cylindrical fish tank being filled with water from a hose sitting beside it. Pegasus was stationed there, keeping track of the rising water level._

_He looked up and Duke could immediately see that something was different about his older friend. The grin that spread across his face was a little more manic, but also much bigger and more sincere-seeming than normal._

"_Hello!" he called to Duke, beckoning him over. "Isn't it grand? I've been meaning to do something with this place for who knows how long, and finally it hit me that I should convert the place into a workspace for when I'm not at the company." _

"_You're going to make Pokémon in your own backyard?" Duke asked, stepping forward. He nearly tripped when a pink and blue Corsola tottered in his path._

"_Don't mind the Babies," Pegasus said. "No, manufacturing Pokémon will still have to be done with all the resources at headquarters, but Fossils can still be studied in a more "homey" setting."_

_As Duke got closer, watching that he didn't find another of two of the three Corsola under his feet, he could see that on some of the other tables there was already evidence of the dirt, rocks, and tools that went along with Pegasus's work. He took a seat in a stool across from Pegasus. _

"_Why do you like Fossils so much, anyway?" he asked. One of the 'Babies' bumped his leg, distracting him while Pegasus's face caved for a moment before recovering. _

"_Oh, someone I knew thought they were interesting. Made me catch the same fever," Pegasus dismissed. "I think that's enough water. Come here, Babies," he cooed. All three rushed to him for various point around the room, and one by one he picked them up and plunked them in the tank. _

_Duke had met the Babies once or twice before. They always brought out Pegasus's soft side, same with Pretty. _

"_So, how's that torture called high school going for you?" Pegasus asked. Duke had moved on from talking about his dad all the time to detailing the trials and pains of his school career. _

_Duke sighed. "Really, I'm thinking of just dropping out."_

"_Good for you," Pegasus said, turning his attention to a Helix Fossil he was in the process of polishing. "High school is a waste of life, anyway."_

_Duke smiled. That was another part of what made him like Pegasus. Not only was the man capable of turning the craziest of schemes into successes of all kinds, but he didn't default to the expected adult response. He didn't go on about how high school was character-building, or lie that it would prepare him for life. He treated Duke like he had a brain and was capable of judging for himself what was necessary to his life and what was not. Duke had found himself relying on that belief in him to get through the tough days at school and at home, and that was what he was counting on now._

"_Pegasus, I would like to ask a favor that goes along with my wanting to drop out." _

"_Of course, of course," Pegasus said, waving his hand back and forth as if there was nothing that would be too extreme of Duke to ask. _

"_Um…"_

_The door to the lab opened with the same clicks and clanks that had accompanied Duke's entrance and someone entered._

"_Lovely… laboratory, Maximillion," said the stranger at the door._

"_It is splendid, isn't it?" Pegasus said, beaming over his work. "Devvy, meet Shadi. Shadi, Devvy," he introduced, gesturing between them. _

_The turbaned man walked over and shook Duke's hand. "Charmed, Devvy."_

"_It's Devlin, actually. Duke Devlin," Duke corrected. Only Pegasus was allowed to call him 'Devvy,' and even that had taken a while to get used to. _

"_Forgive me," Shadi said in response. "I hope you don't mind my saying, but Pegasus has told me of your talent with your Pokémon." Duke blinked in surprise and looked over at Pegasus who had never mentioned speaking to anyone else of his friendship with his years-old trespasser. "What Pokémon do you have?"_

"_My starter is a Charmander. And I have a Ditto and Seaking as well," Duke answered. With Pegasus's encouragement, he'd charged headlong into trying to become the best trainer he could be, and, yes, he did like to think he had some talent. _

_Shadi nodded. Taking a step away, Shadi focused on the tank and put a hand in to give one of the bobbing, happy Corsola a pat on the head. "I do hope I'm not interrupting the two of you. I'm afraid that I had no choice but to come." He looked at Pegasus who ignored him in favor of picking up a Dome Fossil. _

"_Of course," Pegasus responded. Neither elaborated in front of Duke. "Duke was just about to ask a favor. He wants to drop out of high school, you know."_

_Duke flushed as Shadi turned his shady blue eyes to him. "Is that so?"_

_Duke cleared his throat. "Yeah." He made sure to direct his words to Pegasus, doing his best to shut Shadi out. "You see, I had this idea that I might be able to open a Pokémon shop. It would provide everything necessary for Pokémon care and training; Pokėballs, Pokémon food, first aid material, etc. Also novelties and stuff to pamper Pokémon with… I already have a space that looks promising downtown…" Duke felt he was losing Pegasus, especially with Shadi still there, no doubt judging Duke for the inept sixteen-year-old he thought he was. "I just need someone to help back me while I get it started," he trailed off, preparing for rejection. He was such a mooch. _

_Pegasus shrugged. "I like it. I'll fund it. Maybe I can even get Industrial Illusions to officially sponsor you, or something of the sort."_

_Duke was about to breathe a sigh of relief —he knew he could count on Pegasus— when Shadi spoke up._

"_How are you going to compete with Solomon Moto's shop of the same nature? He is set up near downtown, is he not? And he has a reputation as quite the successful trainer that would appeal greatly to his intended customers. Do you have a plan to compete with someone whose shop and character are already well established?"_

"…_No," Duke admitted, hanging his head. He risked a glance at Pegasus, who himself was watching Shadi out of the corner of his eye. He had paused in his polishing. _

"_Then, might I suggest something beyond opening your own shop?"_

"_No offense," Duke started, feeling defensive himself, "but I don't even know you."_

"_I understand, but I think that it might be a good idea for you to try out for the Bureau of Pokémon Affairs agent exams. They are coming up in the spring, and, at sixteen, you are considered of age, as long as you have passed some form of high school equivalency exam. It seems a good fit for you."_

_Silence hung in the air for a long while. Duke again looked over at Pegasus to gauge his reaction. The man was now frowning slightly as he gazed down at the Dome Fossil in his hands, staying out of this conversation. Whatever ecstatic nature he'd taken on was once again lost. _

"_I really don't know if I'm BPA material," Duke hedged. He had no idea what BPA material would even consist of._

"_The exams will help to place you in an area that would work for your skill set and temperament," Shadi answered. He then spoke to Pegasus. "I realize that it is your choice to do as you wish with your money and company, but might I ask that you hold off from making your decision to fund Mr. Devlin's business until he has at least taken the exams?"_

_Pegasus seemed to consider. Eventually he said, "Since I know he'll pass them anyway, why shouldn't I just loan him the money now? Seems like a waste of time and resources to me."_

_Thank you, Pegasus, Duke thought. _

_Shadi's eyes seemed to narrow slightly. "If that's the case, then I will have to offer him a better deal. You offer him the patronage of your company, but we both know you can't get your board of directors to agree unless they see some sort of return from his shop. Duke," Shadi addressed him, "should you decide to take the exams, just take them, I will cover every expense of starting your shop, in full, and you will not have to pay me a single dime back." Shadi offered his hand. "What do you say?"_

* * *

Duke had aced the exams, which had had nothing to do with tangents and cosigns or fragment sentences or covalent bonds or memorable dates in history. It was all about Pokémon: Pokémon habits, Pokémon breeding, Pokémon types, Pokémon _laws_ which he'd had very little experience with but had been fascinated by as he'd studied, for one of the first times in his life, before the tests. And then there had been the physicals for himself and his Pokémon, and the psychological evaluations for them all, and finally multiple observations of Duke working with his Pokémon in various situations.

The exams had lasted weeks, and, in the end, Duke had been recommended for a position as special agent. He could have gone to Pegasus and his mysterious friend then and made Shadi stick to his end of the bargain. Instead, he'd decided to join the BPA, thinking he'd better like actively working to help save Pokémon than he would like sitting behind a store counter for the rest of his days. At least joining a government agency meant his dad couldn't yell at him about wasting his life and talents, Duke had thought.

He'd been wrong, but it wasn't like he talked to his dad anymore, anyways. He had Pegasus for his heart-to-hearts. Sometimes he felt he abused Pegasus's seeming willingness to be Duke's confidante in all things, all the time, but encouraging Pegasus to open up in the same way seemed wrong for their positions, especially on the rare occasions Duke remembered that they had over a decade, at least, separating them in their ages. He wasn't actually very sure how old Pegasus was. Or what he'd done in his life before Industrial Illusions. Or much beyond what the rest of the public knew about his history.

The door Pretty had opened for him closed on her mental command once he was in the lab. He walked between the rolling storage cabinets that now housed multiple specimens of all seven known Pokémon Fossils as well as other artifacts, like stones of various sorts, found on digs funded by Pegasus's company. It was from Industrial Illusions that the BPA received the Fossils that they then revived and handed out themselves as gifts or rewards to people who had done the bureau or the public at large a Pokémon-related service, like Seto Kaiba's Kabutops… or Gozaburo Kaiba's Omastar before that. There was another BPA screw-up.

Above Duke, on a perch between two of the caged lights, an Aerodactyl sat. It, along with many other Pokémon, had been introduced to the lab over time to join the three Corsolas. The two pits on the other side were filled with Fossil-types just living their lives, and a Starmie was mounted flat on one of the tables in the center. Duke had never seen in move or Pegasus use it for anything other than a decoration, though Duke did find that whenever he walked by it, anything electronic he had on him went wonky, and figured the Pokémon was likely very active mentally, sending out strong psychic waves.

The Aerodactyl watched Duke pass beneath it. It was very quiet and Duke often forgot it was even there when he visited. But he couldn't ignore the rather obvious new edition of a Snorlax to the lab. It was sagged against the wall to the right after where the cabinets ended.

"Dang," Duke said to himself. He had no idea of how Pegasus would have managed to get such a large Pokémon into the building. Very impressive. He had to wonder why it was here at all, though. That was what he contemplated while he waited.

Pegasus joined him a few minutes later. "Sorry for the wait, Devvy."

"No problem. You have a new Snorlax," Duke commented, nodding at the snoring beast.

"That's not all that's new," Pegasus said. "Come see what gems my people found on our Pokémon reservation on the coast."

There was an air of excitement around Pegasus as he strode across the now stained marble. He picked up a lab coat on the way. He hadn't dressed in black since the construction of the lab and instead liked to wear things that emphasized the mood he was in. Lab coat meant he was in a very _archeological _sort of mood.

"New find?" Duke guessed. There was a new fish tank set up on one of the tables and a cage with a covering on another. Pegasus first took him to a rock and fossil covered table where he picked up two of them.

"These are the new Plume and Cover Fossils. We'll be officially introducing them to you agents in a month or two. Or, you know, whenever I feel like it," Pegasus joked.

"What do they become?" Duke asked. Pegasus set them down and dragged Duke to the new aquarium.

"I figured that the Lileep and Cradily should probably be moved out of the pits, anyway, so now we have this beauty—" Pegasus ran a hand along the new 1500 gallon rectangular tank "—and we also put the Cover Fossil's Pokémon in there. This is Tirtouga." He and Duke watched as the turtle-like Pokémon swam amongst the two Lileep and the single Cradily Pegasus had acquired when the Root Fossil had also been on one of Industrial Illusions's Pokémon sanctuaries. Something else that had always been a little below-the-level with Pegasus's company was that, under Pegasus's direction, it always seemed to know where and when the next new Pokémon Fossils would be discovered.

"Does it have an evolution?" Duke asked.

"Yes, Carracosta. It's in the larger pit with the other big ones. Let me show you the Archen."

Next it was to the covered birdcage where two Archen were dozing.

"Cool, another flying one," Duke said. "They have an evolution, too?"

"Archeops. Its cage is over in the corner, but it's a rather nasty piece of work," Pegasus informed with a grin. "Back in the day it no doubt could have given Aerodactyl up there a run for its money."

They wandered around the lab for a while, getting a distant look at the Archeops, circling the pits. Pegasus gave the Snorlax a giant nudge that didn't cause so much as a break in its sleeping breathing pattern.

"I've always thought that this place always seemed smaller on the inside than the outside," Duke said.

"It's an effect of the cabinets," Pegasus supplied.

"Whatever it is, the Snorlax makes this place seem even smaller."

Pegasus laughed, and then there was a clunking sound from the cylindrical tank by the table. Two more quickly followed. The three Corsola were bumping against the glass and staring wistfully at Pegasus.

"Ah, my Babies. It's time for their daily sanding. Oh, Devvy, help me find my fishnet," Pegasus entreated. They spent the next few minutes searching for the long-handled net. Duke found it behind the Archeops cage. The Pokémon inside eyed Duke with a malicious light in its eyes. It made several attempts to catch pieces of Duke in its bright teeth through the brass bars of its cage.

While Pegasus dipped around and fished out the Corsola, Duke wandered over to the larger of the two pits while Pegasus cooed over his attention-wanting Babies. Like the Serperior, and even Pretty to an extent, they were a Pokémon that Duke would never have expected Pegasus to have, and yet he doted on the three.

He leaned against the pit's railing and look down on the Carracosta, Bastiodon, Rampardos, and Armaldo contained in it. The slightly smaller pit to the side held Kabuto, Kabutops, Anorith, Omanyte, and Omastar. Both pits had ponds to swim in and drink from, plants to eat, dirt to dig (before they hit the marble beneath), and various toys and gadgets to stimulate their intellects. Rather than a lab, the place often felt more like an archaic zoo to Duke, with at least one of each of every evolution of the Fossil types discovered so far.

Duke watched as the two Rampardos challenged each other and made a game of butting heads. Duke felt like one of them with everything that had been messing with his life, mainly Maguire and his new position, was the other. He was once again not being very fair to Yami, but the exams he'd taken had specifically put him in a position where an individual was meant to thrive on their own. Teamwork was not his forte.

"Hey, Pegasus," he called over his shoulder.

"Hmmmm?" Pegasus continued rubbing the Corsola down with sandpaper. They made peeping, purring sounds of delight.

"Mind if I vent?" Duke knew the answer, but he still felt the need to be polite about asking permission to complain to his heart's content over his new partnership, his old supervisor, and just the Bureau of Pokémon Affairs in general.

"Please," Pegasus invited with a small smile.

**Thanks for reading! Updated to celebrate the end of this semester even though I've immediately jumped into first summer session. Let me know what you think!**


	4. Not So Homecoming

**Here it finally is. Duke got his chapter, now Yami gets his. And a flashback, too! **

Yami stood at the door of his grandfather's shop. He'd been there for several minutes and was making no progress on actually making it _through_ the door.

As a new BPA agent, still practically a trainee, he was required to live in the dorms the bureau had near their headquarters. He was allowed to visit home on the weekends, but Yami hadn't done so once since he'd first left, months ago. He just kept putting it off. And he'd _like_ to put it off again until next weekend.

He had the same feeling as every time he went to enter a tournament or contest: before he was actually registered, it would be horrible and he'd be sick to his stomach with nerves, even with Yugi and their friends supporting him, but once he was signed up and actually in the tournament he was perfectly fine and in-control, confident. He was hoping that things would turn out like that with his first visit home. If the visit ever actually happened.

He did, but didn't, want to go home.

_Just get it over with_, he thought. He didn't have the same excuses he did before he got Duke as a partner. Taking a deep breath, and then another, he finally pushed the door to the shop. It was unlocked and the bells on the door rang, but the inside was dark and no one greeted him.

"Hello?" Yami called. Neither Solomon nor Yugi were behind the counter. None of their friends who would occasionally watch the store were, either. There was just a nasty Glameow napping on the counter in their stead.

The Glameow and Yami had hated each other on sight. Yugi and the rest of the gang, behind Yami's back, had pooled their money and bought the Pokémon from a noted breeder for his grandfather once they knew for sure that Yami was heading off to be an agent after graduating high school a year early. The Glameow was his replacement, and part of the reason why he didn't want to come back.

It opened its blue and yellow eyes as Yami let the door close behind him, and its bells rattled again. Glameow stood and stretched, straightening its spring-like tail to over twice the length of its body before settling primly on the counter and watching Yami like he was a boring Bug-type, a Caterpie, scuttling around in its territory.

"Yugi? Grandpa?" Yami shouted. Except for the door being unlocked, Yami might have thought that they were gone. It would figure that the one time Yami managed to make it back his family would be out, not that he'd given them any warning to expect him. "Are you guys here? Hello!"

He went forward and made to go around the counter, back to the living area, but Glameow suddenly took action, after having appeared to not care in the least about Yami's presence. It reached forward and took a swipe at Yami's nose as he was about to move past it.

"Hey!" Yami jumped back, but not in time to avoid a pair of shallow lines being carved across one nostril. Glameow purred and licked two of its claws free of Yami's blood. It broke off and hissed when Yami stepped forward again.

"Damnit. Yugi! Come on!" Yami was going back to the dorms if his brother didn't come down in the next few minutes.

Finally, there was the sound of socked feet rushing down the stairs, and Yugi burst through the curtain behind Glameow. He stopped in shock.

"I heard you, but I didn't think… You're really back…" Yugi's face suddenly broke open into a grand, blinding smile, and he hurried around to hug his brother. "I've missed you."

Yami and his brother held each other for a minute, the malicious Pokémon on the counter watching them with a crinkle in its brow.

"I've missed you, too," Yami was eventually able to say, choking the words out past a lump in his throat that he hadn't realize he'd developed. The back of his eyes were stinging, as well.

Yugi pulled back a bit and his eyes had a sheen to them that Yami was just barely to stave off himself. "You've never been gone for so long. I didn't realize how lonely it would be."

Yami cleared his throat. "I've been busy, getting adjusted and all of that. Anyway, didn't the Glameow keep you company?" he asked, jerking his head in its direction.

As the cat hissed at him again and Yugi laughed, their grandfather came through the curtain. "Yami, welcome back!"

"Hi, Grandpa." He and Yugi broke apart so Yami embrace his grandfather.

"Why didn't you come on through?" Solomon asked.

Yami pointed at his nose where scabs were starting to form over the scratches.

"Oh, don't mind Crook," Solomon said. "I told him not to let any strangers behind the counter. He was just following orders."

Yami felt his breath catch on the offhand words. _I'm a stranger now?_

"You behave, Crook," Solomon admonished, waving a finger at it. The Glameow looked away, pretending not to understand what his owner was talking about.

Yami turned to Yugi. "Why give the Pokémon that watches your store such a criminal name?" he muttered, trying to ignore a sudden feeling of apprehension. Yugi chuckled.

"I know, right? Cleo, Ra, and Horus are in the backyard with Tea," Yugi told him. "Cleo and Curlicue are having a mock-Contest."

"I'd like to see them," Yami admitted. He pulled three pokėballs from his jacket and handed them to Yugi. "They want to see you."

Yugi gave a giant sigh as he accepted them. Yami didn't wait and left, giving the Glameow a wide berth as he went behind the counter, and headed through the rest of the house to the backyard. He saw Tea and Curlique through the screen door in the back before anything else. It looked like same-old, same-old for the moment, but there were a lot of new additions to the backyard, mainly in the form of Pokémon, though a few more plants had shown up, too.

Yami had still been around when Tea's Chikorita had evolved into a Bayleef. She'd sent him an email soon after he'd left that she'd used Seedpod soon after to catch an Ampharos. Baa Baa, as she called him, was sitting amicably beside Seedpod against the far fence, the two of them watching the Contest between their trainer's Vulpix and Yugi's Ninetales.

That was all Yami had expected. He _hadn't_ expected the Minun and Plusle that stood to the side of the match who were cheering their little electric hearts out for Curlique. Baa Baa apparently charged with making sure to keep at least half of his attention on those two sparks of energy to keep them from getting into trouble.

Yugi and Yami's Quilava, Ra, was watching the match, but as he'd seen this same practice multiple times, he had less attention on it than the others. He was the first to see Yami and let out a yip of surprise that brought everyone else's eyes around to Yami.

"Hi, he said.

Yami was nearly bowled over as the normally elegant Cleopatra and Ra came to greet him. He kneeled down and became enveloped in the Ninetales's fur and Quilava's warmth. "Hi, guys," he murmured. Cleo whined and stretched her forelegs over his shoulders to pull him closer, pressing her face against his. Ra kept dancing around only to then lean his full body against Yami and Cleo before springing away again and repeating the maneuver. Cleo still refused to let go of her trainer, despite them nearly being forced to the ground by Ra's antics.

Yami hugged Cleo right back and managed to catch Ra with one arm and pull him into the embrace. They held tight for a long time.

"I think they missed you," Tea said. She and her Pokémon had moved closer to watch the reunion. Seedpod had left her spot by the fence and was standing next to her trainer. Yami hadn't seen it earlier, but perched on her back was Yugi and Yami's Horus. Yami felt his breath catch.

The little Pidgey looked at Yami with his head cocked for a while. Yami prepared for Pidgey to reject him, fulfilling some of his fears about leaving while he was still such a baby. But Horus let out a happy little chirp then and flapped over to perch on Yami's outstretched arm.

"Hey there, Horus," Yami said with relief.

"It looks like Yugi is having the same sort of reunion with your guys' other Pokémon," Tea commented. "You are both rather sweet."

Yami looked over and saw through the screen door Yugi with Geb in his arms and Thoth and Caesar gathered to him on either side.

"What's with the Minun and Plusle?" Yami asked, looking away from his brother and up at Tea.

Tea smiled and crouched down next to him with her arms wide open. "Come here, you little imps!" she called for them. They came tumbling over one another from where they'd wandered off to across the lawn in their haste to reach her first.

"They're adorable," Yami said. "But aren't you a little overburdened with Baa Baa and the Contests?"

"I had to take them in," Tea said.

Yami raised his eyebrows.

"They're from the foster program," Tea said. They both became quiet. The Pokémon foster care was run by the Bureau of Pokémon Affairs. Yami had considered going into it when he'd first applied. But the foster care had an unfortunate reputation for mucking things up, though it wasn't necessarily their fault.

People would scam the foster system. There was a huge black market that existed for the rarer Pokémon, and those same Pokémon would often end up being seized and put in the program. The scammers might wait for years, posing as the ideal situation in which to rehabilitate these Pokémon, and once they got their hands on a Pokémon that was rare enough, they'd sell it, almost always putting it back into the same despicable place that they'd been rescued from, take the money, and disappear. It put the foster care in a horrible dilemma, where the people that seemed the most trustworthy and experienced with caring for the Pokémon were frequently the ones just playing the system until their long-term gamble paid off.

Then there were the ones that were in for the short-term and organized and rotated themselves through the various systems, out more for quantity than quality when it came to their thieving. These criminals were so good, it was rumored, that if you wanted a particular Pokémon recovered, there were networks in place that could guarantee its return in thirty days or less.

"It must have taken you a while to get past all of the screenings and such," Yami commented.

Tea nodded. "I was already in the application process before the raid on Kaiba's breeding grounds. Apparently, my help with that moved me to the top of the list, but it still took months to get just these two."

"How did they end up in the system?" Yami asked.

Tea shifted Minun to get at Plusle. She took its ear and showed it to Yami. "They were both in an illegal fight club. There were no trainers or anything to help them battle, and if they didn't fight they were punished. These knicks are from them being forced to bite each other. Minun still has a nipping problem when he's scared."

They were quiet for a while again.

"Are you going to be able to stay for the barbeque?" Tea asked.

"Barbeque?"

Yugi came out of the house, then. Cleo left Yami's side to greet Caesar in particular, and Geb left Yugi's embrace for Ra's company. Thoth was already back in his pokėball, which Yugi handed over to Yami.

"Hey, can you come upstairs for a minute?" Yugi asked him.

"Sure," Yami said, puzzled. "Do you mind if we…?" he asked Tea.

"Go right on ahead. I'm going to get Seedpod and the others set up," she told them.

They left their own Pokémon in the living room behind the store, and they met Grandpa at the bottom of the stairs. "Where are you two going?"

"Yami's old room," Yugi answered. That seemed to mean more to the two of them than it did to Yami.

"I see." Solomon followed them up the stairs.

"Mind telling me what all of this cloak and dagger behavior is for?" All of Yami's instincts were telling him something was up that he wasn't going to like.

They moved through upstairs, passing their parents' empty room, Grandpa's room, the bathroom, and the room the Yami and Yugi used to share as children, but Yami had moved out of a few years earlier for the tiny attic room at the end of the hall. They went up the few more steps that led to his space, where drapes covered the small windows and left the room murky and unfimiliar. When Yami reached for the light switch, Yugi stopped him.

Even without it, Yami could make out that what he'd assumed they'd leave be in his room had radically changed. It was as if they'd converted it into badly-managed storage in the few months he'd been gone. Yami didn't know how to respond to what he saw, but he could feel his brother's and grandfather's eyes on him.

"I hope you don't mind that we changed up your room a bit, Yami," Grandpa said.

"N-no," Yami replied after a pause. "It's fine… I—why, though?" Was there a reason? Or had they just been waiting to use his room as a catch-all for all of their junk from the moment he left?

Grandpa turned to Yugi, who was looking halfway between proud and uncomfortable. Maybe even ashamed.

Yugi walked over to the darkest, far corner of the room. He reached up and seemed to tickle the shadows that were gathered like cobwebs at the junction of the walls and ceiling. Yami thought he heard a giggle, and then the shadows began to coalesce into a green and purple form. Whatever it was dropped down to land in Yugi's hair and began to coo and wriggle in delight.

Yugi turned around to face Yami with a shy grin on his face. Half of his face was covered with tendrils of hair that weren't his own.

"Yami, this is Isis. She's my new Misdreavus."

* * *

_Eight years ago:_

"_What are you going to name him?" Yugi asked. Their new Cyndaquil was sitting on Yami's lap, its long nose twitching as it took in the scents of its new backyard. They'd just picked him up today, a week after Yami's tenth birthday. _

"_What are _we_ going to name him," Yami corrected. "I really don't know. Maybe we should let him choose." He shuffled their Cyndaquil from one side of his lap to the other. _

"_How?" Yugi asked. He reached out and rubbed up and down Cyndaquil's head and snout. The Cyndaquil gave a series of squeaks and pips of happiness. _

"_I don't know. Maybe we'll just know. Like how he knew it was the two of us," Yami said._

_Yugi got a slight frown going and was slow to say, "You know… you don't have to share him with me, you know. I'll be old enough to find my own starter in two years. You can have him—"_

"_I can," Yami agreed. "But he chose _us_ Yugi. And you and I chose him. So knock it off." He smiled as he said it. _

_Their grandfather came through the screen door then and headed for them._

"_Are you boys going to be okay if I close up and run out for a bit?" Solomon asked. _

"_Yeah, we'll be fine," Yami answered._

"_We have Cyndaquil to protect us!" Yugi said, a big smile on his face._

"_All the same, I'm going to leave Ptah and Guardian to keep a watch on you two," Solomon said with a chuckle, pulling out the pokėballs for his Alakazam and Charizard respectively. _

"_Did I disappoint you by not choosing the Charmander?" Yami suddenly asked, not looking their grandfather in the eye. He'd gone from confident to self-conscious in the blink of an eye._

"_Did 'we' disappoint you?" Yugi corrected, sticking by his brother's side._

_Solomon smiled and knelt down between his two grandsons and put an arm around each of them. The three watched Cyndaquil take another few tentative steps across the stones. _

"_There is no way that either of you could disappoint me, especially in this."_

_Yami leaned his head on his grandfather's shoulder. "I thought you might have wanted us to follow in your footsteps, so that we'd someday have a Charizard like Guardian."_

"_Not at all. You need to do what you feel is right when it comes to this. I'm hardly surprised that you've chosen your own path." Solomon paused. "Your choice to share is a little beyond my grasp, I must say."_

"_Cyndaquil chose both of us," Yugi stated firmly. Yami nodded with his brother's words. "And we're always going to share, right, Yami?"_

_Yami grinned brightly. "Right. Always." _

"_I see," Grandpa murmured. He stood and gave his grandsons and their new starter a smile. "Let me know what you're going to name it when I get back" he said before releasing Guardian and Ptah and going on his way. _

"_Maybe we shouldn't name it. Not everyone calls their Pokémon something," Yugi said after a moment. Their grandfather's Alakazam came over to inspect the Cyndaquil that had entered into its territory. _

"_We could name it like on of Grandpa's Pokémon," Yami suggested. "Like Ptah, we could name it Amun, or Ra, or Anubis."_

"_We could make it a theme!" Yugi said. _

_Yami laughed._

"_I like 'Ra,'" Yugi said._

"_Yeah, I like it, too," Yami agreed._

_Cyndaquil gave a squeak, seeming to enjoy and approve of the name himself as he basked in the sun. _

* * *

"Grandpa, can Yami and I have a moment alone?" Yugi asked. His Misdreavus was still swarming all over his hair. She was completely and utterly infatuated with it.

"Oh, sure, boys. I'll be downstairs if you need me," their grandfather said, looking between the two of them. He left then, but didn't really go al that far.

"It's not fine, is it?" Yugi asked once they were alone.

Yami paused before answering, considering what sort of modified truth he should give. He could try to deny it outright, but Yugi had always been more like a twin than just a little brother. They knew each other's moods and habits as well as their own most of the time. When a surprise party had been planned for one of their respective birthdays, and the other had been let in on the plan, whoever had been the upcoming birthday-boy had also known about it without being told. Their connection, bordering on clairvoyance, was what had made them such an unstoppable team when training and battling with their Pokémon.

"We've always done everything together when it came to our Pokémon," Yami offered with a shrug. "It's just a bit difficult adjusting to you having one that's all your own." Another shrug.

Isis left Yugi's hair then and floated over to examine Yami. She seemed confused to come face to face with someone who looked so like her own trainer. Displeasure was the next sensation she felt. Getting right up in Yami's face, she let out a scream of rage at his daring to resemble Yugi in the least.

"Sissy, stop that," Yugi ordered. Still glaring at Yami, Isis drifted back to Yugi and nestled up against the side of his head. "She's really not that bad; she's just having trouble adjusting to urban life," Yugi explained. "That's why we converted your room, to give her somewhere more cave-like and cluttered to get used to first before I slowly introduce her to the rest of the house and then Domino."

"Why didn't you tell me when you got her?" Yami asked.

"You weren't here to tell…"

Suddenly a wild monkey howl came from downstairs, followed by crashing, and then someone shrieking about eggs and Solomon grumbling as he hurried down the stairs from where he'd been standing, listening outside the door to his grandsons' conversation.

Joey and Tristan had arrived, and they'd brought drama with them.

Yami nearly breathed a sigh of relief at the interruption to what had been becoming an extremely awkward conversation. He turned to Yugi and his new Pokémon.

"Will Sissy—" she interrupted him with a screech "—will _Isis_ be joining the rest of us for the barbeque?"

Yugi seemed disappointed for a second, but he said, "No, she still prefers her room, but I think I'll get her to a point where I can take her to actual Contests, though she just might prefer Tournaments." Yugi smiled at his newest Pokémon as she floated around his head while keeping one unfriendly eye on Yami. "You go on down. I'm going to stay with her for a while."

As Yami walked down the stairs, he muttered to himself, "It's my room."

Horus was waiting for him on the railing at the bottom of the stairs. Its feathers were ruffled and out-of-place from its frantic flight away from what, considering the size and sounds of the disturbance, could only be Joey's Mankey on a rampage.

Yami checked in on his and Yugi's other _shared_ Pokémon, placing Horus on Cleo's sloping shoulder, before going through to the backyard again, avoiding the store where shouting was still going on. It seemed like Mankey had made his way outside as well.

Yami found Tea with one arm each around Minun and Plusle, pressed up against the wall of the building, trying to keep them all out of Mankey's way. "What set it off?" he asked her as he settled next to her. As long as they kept still and out of the way, it wasn't likely that the Pokémon would bother with them.

She sighed and tried to flip her bangs out of her face with a jerk of her head since her hands were full. "Special circumstances. It's actually been pretty well-behaved recently, but Joey turned his back for a second to help Tristan bring in the barbeque supplies. He left his pokėballs on the counter and Crook knocked Mankey's down. Mankey came out and that wretched cat scratched it across the nose." Yami was glad to hear that there was someone else who didn't seem to like Glameow any more than he did. He reached up and moved her bangs back from her forehead for her. "Thanks," she said.

"Did I hear something about an egg?" Yami asked. They both froze as Mankey ricocheted off the wall above them only to continue with his rampage through the rest of the yard.

"You haven't heard yet, then. Talk to Tristan about it. I think he's yelling at Joey for endangering it now, and that's why—Duck!" They both dove as the Mankey threw a potted plant in their direction. Minun and Plusle squealed and seemed frightened as bits of pottery and dirt fell around them. Minun was snapping at the air near Plusle's ears. Yami saw Tea's concern for them and watched as it became anger.

"I'll take care of it, Tea," Yami said, trying to spare Joey even if he may deserve the tongue-lashing for having yet to stop his out-of-control Pokémon. He called Thoth out and hoped the Kadabra would behave itself. He'd been doing well since Yami became an agent, but returning home might send Thoth back to his bad habits. For now Thoth knew his duty, having done it many times before.

"Thoth, stop Mankey," Yami told him. Thoth stepped forward and attracted the angry Mankey's attention. It had four lines of blood rather than the two Yami had arching across its pig-like nose. "Kinesis, Telekinesis, and hold it there," Yami said. They'd used this series multiple times in getting Normal Types under control; it would be perfect for keeping Mankey out of trouble until Joey could deal with it.

As Mankey charged forward to attack, Thoth used Kinesis to send its charge reeling and easily stepped out of its way. While Mankey was still confused, Kadabra used Telekinesis to raise it into the air, where he kept the thrashing Pokémon out of harm's way. Tea had already left to get Joey.

Yami took a deep breath and closed his eyes. It felt like the old days when this was nearly an everyday occurrence, where Yami and Yugi would have to step in to take care of Joey's problem after he'd gotten in trouble with Tristan, Tea, or Grandpa. He wondered what they did without him or Thoth there.

Joey finally managed to be dragged away from Tristan's berating to deal with his Mankey. A Pineco followed him out into the yard.

"Hey, Yami. Long time, no see. Thanks for taking care of this, my man," Joey said.

Yami smiled. "Not a problem. What's with the Pineco?" The bug was watching Kadabra and Mankey with its entire body cocked to one side and spinning slightly on its quirked axis.

Joey called the Mankey to its pokėball. "It was your grandpa's idea. He thinks I have too many high-energy Pokémon, so now I have this guy to try acting as a calming influence."

…_Don't they self-destruct?_ Yami thought.

"You guys get the picnic tables set up!" Solomon yelled from inside.

Thoth helped them get the tables and benches from where they were stored and they got to work cleaning them off and getting them in place.

"So what's been keeping you away from us, Yami?" Joey asked. "It's been, like, forever since we've seen you."

"Yeah, well, it's taken some time to get settled," Yami said.

Joey snorted. "Not that long… Are you finally settled, then?"

"I finally have a partner assigned to me," offered Yami. "Do you remember Duke Devlin?"

"I remember. I like that guy. He'll make a good partner. Still, waiting to get someone assigned to you seems like a crappy excuse for not visiting," Joey stated bluntly.

"And what's your excuse for still not having you Mankey under control?" Yami snapped. Joey stopped what he was doing and stared at Yami with his mouth open.

Yami lowered his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that," he apologized. "Tea actually says this has become a rare event around here."

"I've gotten some help from the weirdest place," Joey said, accepting the apology and willing to get on with things. "Kaiba's little brother, Mokuba. He's been pretty useful getting Mankey and Charmeleon to calm down a bit and listen to me."

Tea came out of the house will a platter of food and scoffed, still angry about Mankey's tantrum. "'Pretty useful'? He's the only reason you have any control at all." Tristan followed her, likewise burdened, with a backpack slung over one shoulder. He looked like he agreed with what Tea said.

Joey blushed. "Yeah, yeah, okay. But I've been making some big strides on my own… with Grandpa Moto's guidance."

"So, not on your own at all, then," Tristan drove home. He and Tea set the food down on the end of one of the tables.

It wasn't long before they were all sitting down and Solomon was grilling some hamburgers and hotdogs for them. There was a little more talk on the subject of how Mokuba had gotten Joey's Golbat on a diet and had already cured Rattata of her biting habits before it moved on to Tristan's new egg. Despite his issues with his Exeggcute, and all his other Pokémon, for that matter, the Phanpy egg that had been entrusted in his care was helping him get comfortable with them all one little bit at a time. His Squirtle was still a bit stand-offish, and his Cubone was hardly an angel, but things were starting to get better.

All around it seemed, everyone Yami had left behind were doing well and moving forward. Tea still worked at the Pokémon daycare, had her new Ampharos, was getting ready for an upcoming Contest, and was fostering Minun and Plusle. Joey had a new Pineco and was seeking help for all the problems that his other Pokémon had. Tristan had his egg. Grandpa had his Glameow.

…And Yugi had his Misdreavus.

Yami tried not to think about that for the rest of the afternoon and just spent the time eating and re-bonding with the Pokémon, friends, and family he'd been separated from for so long.

When Yami finally left, giving Ra, Cleo, and Horus a lengthy goodbye and promising his grandfather and Yugi to call and visit more often, he felt a great deal better than he had when he'd first come back. But as he was leaving, he looked up at the house and saw the curtain in what had been his old room twitch apart. One of Sissy's large red and yellow eyes peaked through the gap she'd made. She glared at him up until he turned his back and walked away, having lost any feeling he'd regained that this was still his home.

**Thanks for reading! Another longer-ish chapter to try to make up for my recent absences all around. **


	5. The Sadist

**I seem unable to update anything else until I get at least one more chapter of this fic up. Enjoy!**

Duke and Yami met at Agent Jenny's office on Monday, reporting in for their first assignment together as partners. Duke thought Yami looked a bit ragged around the edges, the scratches on his nose were definitely a new addition, but he seemed as welcoming towards Duke's presence as ever. Duke himself had been pretty chipper when he'd first gotten up that morning. After a weekend visit with Pegasus, he was usually good for at least a couple of days into the week. That seemed to be changing recently, though, as Duke was already beginning to drag by the time he made it out to the sidewalk before his apartment building.

"Hey," Duke greeted. He held out his knuckles and they easily exchanged a fist-bump.

"Good morning."

They didn't have time to say anything more when Agent Jenny arrived and ushered them in.

"You two have heard of the new tournament that Kaiba Corp. is holding in our fair city?" Jenny asked them. "Well, after the attack on their headquarters and the other incident on the Kaiba Estate, which you are both cleared on, the Bureau of Pokémon Affairs has agreed to lend Kaiba some extra help in keeping the tournament and its participants safe." Agent Jenny didn't have a nice expression on her face when she said this, which caused Duke to figure that Kaiba was up to his old habits and had twisted the BPA's arm on the matter, though why he would still find their help worth counting on was a different matter. "Later this week, you two will report to the established on-site security office that Kaiba has been kind enough to provide us with, where you will be given the details of your assignment."

"Yes, ma'am," Yami responded, all crisp and proper. They both looked at Duke.

"Uh, yeah. Works for me. What are we supposed to do until then? Er, ma'am?" That was going to take a while to wrap his tongue around.

"You're technically off-duty until that time. However, I would highly suggest," she gave them a look that made it clear that this was to be considered an order, "that the two of you spend the time getting to know one another better. Go to the gym, get lunch. Find something to do together. I'll see you both later."

When they were outside, Duke let his Charmander out of its pokėball. He explained to Yami, "I'm not supposed to let him roam, but this is really some of the only time we have together." Yami seemed to get it.

"The gym, then?" Yami asked.

"Works for me." They headed back to the building they'd met in front of on Saturday.

"Sorry I sort of bailed on you when we met the other day," Duke apologized. "Especially since it was my suggestion we meet."

"It's all right," Yami dismissed with a grin. "I took the chance to go home and see my family."

Duke blinked and felt surprised. He remembered Yami telling him about missing them and not feeling himself when they'd met for the first time again several weeks ago, but it seemed like he'd accepted the distance. After a while, the trainees and new agents usually just stopped going home. That had been one of Duke's favorite parts of joining the BPA.

"Must have been nice," he felt obliged to comment.

They went to the locker room and changed. In the gym, the rules about Pokémon were comparably lax, and no one cared that Duke's Charmander was out, and Duke himself could see several agents who didn't normally have the right were letting their own Pokémon out. It was technically the Pokémon's gym, too, and there were several arenas and training areas just for them and their owners to work in.

And even though he had kept Flamethrower under wraps while meeting with Agent Jenny, he had been taking him and Scarecrow out pretty often while still on bureau grounds. So far no one had busted him for it. After all, Duke still had an impressive record despite his constant tiffs with his supervisor, and people did respect him to a degree and so far no one seemed to begrudge him his companions.

"Want to toss around a medicine ball?" Duke asked when they returned to the gym proper. He'd found a pamphlet in his bureau post office box that had tips for building trust between partners. Agent Jenny was probably the one responsible for it being there. He'd nearly tossed it in the trash with a sniff of disdain, but after having remembered something Pegasus had told him over the weekend about making the best of this new situation, he had chosen to look through it.

It had been full of little exercises, some of them literal, like the medicine balls. Other suggestions, like trust falls and games of truth or dare, were a bit much for Duke to take seriously. He couldn't imagine ever instigating a conversation that ended with him closing his eyes and falling backwards into Yami's waiting arms, or asking him if he would rather admit who gave him his first kiss or lick a lamp pole in the cold.

Another that Duke had rejected outright was exchanging one or all of your Pokémon for a day with your partner. Considering the somewhat volatile or unpredictable nature of his own Pokémon at times, especially Flamethrower and Doppelganger, and the fact that Yami's Pokémon were already shared with his younger brother and yet another trainer in the mix could possibly cause loyalty issues, it was simply not a good idea.

Yami agreed to the exercise, and they began throwing it back and forth, doing sit-ups, pinning each other's feet for them, as they tossed it to and fro. They took it slow and kept talking as they threw the heavy ball between them. Charmander sat to the side and watch the ball sailing between his trainer and his trainer's partner.

"So how did your meeting with your friend go?" Yami ventured to inquire.

Duke felt a little spark energize him a bit more as he thought of his day with Pegasus. "It went well. He's actually the guy who's kind of responsible for me getting involved with the BPA in the first place." The pamphlet said that exchanging personal information was one way to bring partners closer and more in-line with each other.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. I already knew I was going to quit school and get my GED," Duke found himself spilling. "I went to him for a loan to get a shop of Pokémon paraphernalia started, but he and one of his acquaintances managed to get to take the agent exams first."

"Sounds like my grandfather's lucky you didn't decide to compete with him. He barely ekes out a living for himself and Yugi and I as it is."

"Really?" That was news to Duke, and probably to anyone outside of the Motos and their circle of friends. "My friend and his argued that I wouldn't be able to make it work because your grandfather already had that market cornered, with him being a legendary trainer and all," Duke informed with a crease in his brow.

"People do tend to stop in sometimes just to get a chance to see him," Yami confirmed. "But even with the little money our parents managed to send back, I remember that sometimes it was hard for him to keep up the store, raise us, and provide for the Pokémon when I was younger."

"Where were your parents?" Duke asked.

"They're archeologists. They've been travelling practically nonstop since Yugi was three and I was in school. I don't really know them, when all is said and done. Neither does Yugi. Grandpa has been the main parental figure in our lives virtually since the beginning."

Duke found himself marveling at the lack of resentment in Yami's voice as he talked about his absent parents. His own had always been there physically, but hardly at all in any other sense. That was how Pegasus had become such a dominant figure in his life, just as Yami's grandfather seemed to be in his.

"Hm. I don't talk to my dad, anymore," Duke decided to share.

"…May I ask why?"

Duke shrugged as he passed the ball. "He and I have different opinions on what defines a successful life and career."

They both jumped and paused, the medicine ball thudding into Yami's chest, as the doors on one side of the gym slammed open and a group of loud people pushed their way into the large room, seeming to take up much of it with their volume alone. There was one person in particular who seemed to be the focus of these new people, though he was doing the least amount of talking. Unlike the others who looked like they had come to make use of the gym's facilities and equipment, this man wore a long charcoal trench coat over blue jeans and a striped shirt. He cast a glance over to the mats where Yami and Duke and his Charmander were located, and Duke felt his stomach give a churn as he recognized the agent.

Duke and Yami redirected their attention to each other and the medicine ball at hand. If they were lucky, the group and that agent in particular would ignore them and let them finish in peace.

"I'm guessing that means your father doesn't approve of you being a BPA agent," Yami surmised, taking up where they had dropped off.

"He doesn't. But he also wouldn't have approved of me opening my own store. It all started when I refused to finish high school, but I can't see him having been happy or proud even if I had bagged myself a diploma." The wry way he spoke of his father was one of the best defenses he had against his old man's constant disapproval, and since that could only work so often, his main defense was not thinking or speaking of him at all.

Someone in the recently arrived group had heard Duke and shouted to him across the gym, "Maybe because even if you had graduated you'd still have the attitude of a dropout, Devlin!" The people surrounding him, whom Duke started to pick out as people he'd never gotten along with, laughed.

Duke rolled his eyes, not giving a damn about what any of those people thought of him, and carried on. He caught Yami's questioning expression and told him, "You only need the equivalent of a high school diploma to get into the BPA, but you're going to find that there are people here who will hold it over you if you didn't follow the traditional route."

"Should I watch out, then? I didn't do the four years, either," Yami reminded him.

Duke snorted. "You graduated _early_. That's hardly the same thing. I told you, you'd have been a great candidate for bureau sweetheart if not for me." A year ahead in school, a distinguished trainer, a grandfather who had his own name in the Pokémon world, not bad-looking, and with an overall great attitude; even with Duke dragging him down, Yami Moto was quite the catch for the bureau. He had something going on behind the scene with the fake smiles he sometimes pulled, but otherwise Duke figured he was just about the best guy the BPA had, or would have once he got a little experience under his belt.

They worked in silence for a little while. Flamethrower grew bored with watching them, and wandered around the mats they occupied, though he knew better than to go further or to go after the Pokémon who were also training with their agents. He had been conditioned again and again that this was a space in which he was not allowed to disobey Duke's orders whatsoever. Duke had had his reservations about bringing him today after not having done so for months, but he seemed to be on his best behavior.

Yami's attention also wandered slightly, to be caught by the man at the center of the group, the agent Duke couldn't stand to look at.

"Who is that?" Yami asked finally. "He looks familiar."

Duke sent a glare in the agent's direction before he gave Yami his biography, as far as he knew it. "That's Special Agent Bakura. I really can't tell you what his first name is. He joined about a year before I did. He was supposedly homeschooled."

"Shouldn't that land him in the same category of outcast as you?"

"You'd think that, but no. He's a special case. He's usually one of the agents that the bureau sends to represent us at tournaments and other events. You've probably seen him battling for us."

Yami nodded, finally placing the tall agent with the long white hair. "I think I might have gone up against him once. Did you ever get to represent the bureau at a tournament or anything? I think I would have remembered seeing you."

"No. My job needed me to be a relative unknown so that I could do undercover work. And it's considered something of an honor to be asked to _be_ the BPA at those functions, so only the golden boys and girls are ever offered the chance."

Duke saw a flash of Yami's teeth as he came up to pass the ball to Duke. "You were never considered a golden boy?"

"Nope. You might have eventually been, but you'll be nicely tarnished by the time I'm done being your partner," Duke said, showing off his own pearly whites in a grin of his own. For a moment he thought he might have crossed a line that had yet to be demarcated, but Yami didn't seem to mind the jab at his choice in partner being a damaging one, still keeping a relaxed smile on his face. Another fake one? Duke wondered.

"Mm. So what assignments does Special Agent Bakura get to be able to show off at tournaments and still do his "special" job?" Yami asked. He and Duke were both out of breath and sweaty from the exercise by now, with their muscles straining and ready to give up the ghost, so Duke signaled for them to stop for a moment to catch up with themselves.

"Actually," he started, rotating his headband, a real one this time, so that it could absorb more moisture, "from what little I know, he has much the same sort of job I used to have." Knowing what Yami was about to ask him, he continued, "I don't know how he's managed to pull it off, what with his face plastered everyone with the BPA seal stamped across it, but it might have to do with his Pokémon. They're all Ghost-type, you see."

Yami opened his mouth in a silent 'ah' and pushed his dangling yellow bangs out of his face. Duke thought he might get the guy a headband of his own. Giving each other gifts was another suggestion from the pamphlet on how to strengthen their bond. It would have to be different enough so that they wouldn't get ragged on for wearing matching outfits, though. Duke knew he'd never be able to stand that. Maybe he'd nix the whole idea.

"I'd suggest never walking behind the guy," Duke mentioned off-handedly. "He has a Haunter that likes to condense itself and hide under his hair."

"Know that from personal experience, do you?" Yami joked.

"Nearly caused me to fall down the flight of stairs I was following him up. We were almost at the top and I was right on his heels when it jumped out straight at my face, like a nightmare jack-in-the-box."

Yami covered his laugh with a cough as he stood up to stretch. Duke joined him. "It's a good thing you didn't end up falling and breaking your neck."

"I did pull a muscle or two wind-milling my arms to keep from doing just that," Duke admitted. He looked over to where Bakura was causing a group of supervisors to go into gales of laughter. Duke had been enjoying it a bit, telling Yami his little story, but he sobered up as he actually took in the special agent.

"Besides keeping your distance when walking behind the guy, I'd really just try to avoid him altogether," Duke warned his partner. "He's an absolute sadist."

"What has he done?" The question was serious. Yami recognized Duke's tone for what it was.

"Nothing I can prove, unfortunately," Duke sighed. He wasn't going to tell Yami everything at this point, like how he'd once fabricated a mission for himself and took the time to investigate Special Agent Bakura after the incident with the stairs and the Haunter. He'd found then the file attached to Bakura's name, just in front of his own, where he'd found out the Bakura's work was essentially the same as his own. His file had been filled with reports that ranged from what Duke would consider the same minor infractions that he had racked up to more serious instances of suspicious deaths of his surveillance targets and even questions regarding the disappearance of another agent or two. They had all been dismissed or discounted by the people who had reviewed them, though there seemed to be enough evidence in some cases for at least further investigation, if not out-right trials.

On a lighter, more personal level, Bakura had been something of a thorn in Duke's side for a while, though he was normally easily ignored. What had gotten on Duke's nerves the most in regards to this other special agent of his own rank was that, despite their equal standing, Bakura had always seemed to be getting away with the same sort of out-of-line behavior that Duke was constantly getting busted for.

Duke had always known that Maguire had it out for him, but the Jenny who'd introduced Yami to him as his new partner and chewed him out in the process was an example of someone who also seemed to let Bakura's actions slide even while attacking Duke for his work. Hers was one of the agents that had vanished after having some sort of contact with Bakura, and hers was the report that, despite admitting to their being some possibility of a connection, declared her disbelief in his involvement. That some more serious charges existed against Bakura that no one seemed to be interested in pressing forward with just solidified the suspicions in Duke's mind that Bakura was up to something within the bureau that went beyond shady and plummeted into the darkness.

While Duke was thinking all of this, the object of his misgivings was sneaking silently closer to him and his partner. Flamethrower had come back over to stand by Duke's leg. When a hand suddenly descended on Duke's shoulder and pulled him tight against the side of the owner, he was shocked into dropping the medicine ball he'd been cradling, and it nearly fell on his starter.

"My ears were burning, Devlin," Bakura purred into Duke's hair. "Were you talking about things and people you shouldn't? I wasn't aware you were such a gossip."

"You piss me off," Duke muttered under his breath.

"Pardon? I'm not sure I heard you, Devvy," Bakura said. His lips were twisted into a sneer that only Yami could see.

_No one calls me that but Pegasus_.

Duke drove his elbow back, hoping to catch Bakura in the gut, or even lower. The special agent moved aside and avoided the blow easily, allowing Duke to pull out of his grasp.

The pack of agents whom Bakura had been with had moved a bit closer. Besides just being people who didn't like Duke, and whom Duke didn't like in return, they were all of a higher rank than either Bakura or Duke and Yami. Another, less severe reason that Bakura was able to get away with so much was because he was so damn chummy with his and others' superiors.

"It's hard to believe that one who came to high could fall so low as to be made a partner-based agent to a trainee. You were so concerned with being a loner and the one pure soul that kept the bureau from tumbling into corruption. Now you're just one of an interchangeable two."

Duke bared his teeth and avoided looking at Yami.

"Of course, at least the trainee actually follows the rules. I hear you've been all over the complex with your lizard out for all to see, Devvy. And your skaggy bird. It's a wonder no one has reported you… yet."

If Bakura interfered with Duke's time with his Pokémon, he would smash his face in. Even if he got sent to prison for a time for destroying the special agent's face, it would be worth it.

Almost. It would mean even more time away from all of his Pokémon, and that would defeat the entire purpose. And it probably would affect Yami horribly for not restraining his partner from assaulting another member of the bureau.

"Maybe I should go and tell someone now. Maguire, perhaps? He'd work in a pinch," Bakura continued to croon. The sycophants he'd abandoned were approaching, their eyes and mouths open and bating like hyenas.

"You seem awfully concerned, Bakura. Want to make a wager, then?" Duke asked.

Bakura raised a brow in interest.

"You and I have a pokėbattle right now. If I lose, I'll play by the rules; never let my Pokémon out again on BPA grounds. I will do all the little things required by partner-based agents," Duke said. "But when I win—"

"When?" Bakura repeated with a laugh.

"When," Duke stated defiantly. "You will get the hell off of my back. And maybe you could try not to kiss so much ass in the future? It's nauseating, to be honest."

Yami chuckled behind him, and Duke felt his spirits bolstered by the gentle reminder that at least someone was on his side.

Bakura looked between the partners. His smile had lessened at Duke's words, but it grew again the more he observed them.

"Fine. You'll be the sorrier for it soon, little _Devvy_."

**Thanks for reading!**

**Bakura's hair is full of *secrets* ;).**


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